Happy Birthday, April!!!

Hey, April...

But I can't, so I'm gonna need y'alls help…all together now:

 Okay, that one was really for me. Hehe. ;0) But seriously…

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Labels: 2015, april, happy birthday

Happy Birthday, April!!!

Happy birthday, April!!!

Seriously, though...

But not too hard. =)

Here's to you, friend.

 Cheers to the best co-blogger

 a girl could ask for. 

And most importantly...

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Labels: 2014, april, happy birthday

{Promo} The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski: Favorite Quote + Giveaway

The following is promotional material provided by the awesome ladies over at Good Choice Reading in celebration of the release of The Winner's Curse in less than two weeks. I absolutely loved this novel, and I'm beyond giddy that it releases on April's birthday. So, to celebrate the release and April's birthday, I'm giving away a copy to one lucky reader. (Don't worry, I'm also sending one April's way...couldn't have her missing out on the epicness that is this book. =D)

First things first, a little about the epic novel in question:

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Curse, book #1
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | IndieBound | Books-A-Million

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

Here's the very cool trailer:



And here's my very favorite quote from the book:

Also for your reading pleasure, here are links to my reviews of The Winner's Curse and Marie's other YA novel The Shadow Society.

Rules:

• This giveaway is international. As long as you can accept ebooks via Amazon/Barnes & Noble or if The Book Depository ships to your location and the book is currently available, you are good to go. (You can double-check that here.)
• One entry per household. 
• Entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant. 
• Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected. Please check your SPAM folder!!! 
• We are not responsible for lost packages. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:

Marie Rutkoski is the author of The Kronos Chronicles, including The Cabinet of Wonders and The Celestial Globe. The Cabinet of Wonders, her debut novel, was named an Indie Next Kids’ List Great Read and a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, among other honors. Rutkoski grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), as the oldest of four children. She attended the University of Iowa, where she took Writers’ Workshop classes and studied with Pulitzer Prize-winner James Alant McPherson. After graduating, she lived in Moscow and Prague. Upon receiving her Ph.D. from Harvard University, she held dual appointments as a lecturer there in both English and American Literature and Language, and History and Literature. Rutkoski is currently a professor at Brooklyn College, where she teaches Renaissance Drama, children’s literature and creative writing. She lives in New York City with her husband and cat.

Find Marie:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Best of luck & happy reading!

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Labels: all the swoons, april, book trailers, fantasy, favorites, giveaways, historical fiction, macmillan, marie rutkoski, must-read, promotions, teasers, the winner's curse

Review: Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Heart Beat
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Series: n/a
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source: received from publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Life. Death. And...Love? Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with. But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her. Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge. Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

 A couple years ago I read Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott and I really liked it. So when I saw Heart Beat on NetGalley I couldn't resist.

I would honestly give it about a 3 ½ stars. I did really enjoy it but Emma got on my nerves a lot. You see the problem with reading young adult sometimes, is the mature side of you wants to slap these teens silly. I think I liked Between Here and Forever a little better, but once again Scott didn't disappoint. I could not put this one down, even though Emma drove me nuts.

To an extent I could see where she was coming from. This is an interesting situation. Her mother dies while pregnant. Her body is being kept alive to sustain the fetus until it is old enough to survive outside the womb. Emma does not believe her mother would have wanted this and she harbors a whole lot of hate towards her step father for making that decision without her. Well, obviously her mother would want that. Maybe it's obvious to me because I'm a mother? Not only does she have this unhealthy anger towards her step dad, she refuses to acknowledge that the baby is her future sibling.

Pretty much the whole story is her working out her feelings over her moms passing. Which is very hard to do when she's still visiting her moms body. How do you find closure doing that? It's not very easy I'm sure, so that was her only saving grace in my eyes.

Heart Beat isn't all doom and gloom though, along the way Emma builds a relationship with a boy she probably never would have talked to had all of this not gone down. They understand each other and the love that blooms between them is sweet.

I did really like Heart Beat. Reading this reminded me I have a few more of Scott's books on my shelf that I should really get to sooner than later.

About the author:

.
Hey there, I'm Elizabeth. I write young adult novels. I live just outside Washington DC with my
husband and dog, and am unable to pass a bookstore without stopping and going inside. All right, and I can't leave without buying at least one book. Usually two. (Or more!)

Find Elizabeth:

Website | Twitter |Goodreads

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Labels: april, Elizabeth Scott, harlequin-teen, Heartbeat, reviews

Review : Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: July 3rd 2012
Source: Purchased for my enjoyment - Kindle
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

Hey everyone!!! In case you missed it, ( Intro post)  I'm a new reviewer. I'm very excited to be here! I look forward to getting to know you all, and visit your blogs and I'm not gonna lie, a little nervous to be posting my first review here. :) 

Sometimes I will hear about a book, read the description and immediately discard it to the (not for me) pile. Then I will continue to hear all these wonderful things about it and decide maybe I should give it a chance. This is what happened with Tiger Lily and I actually liked it!

This shocked me. Why you ask? I freaking hate Peter Pan. When I was little, I remember my cousins always wanted to watch it. It was boring to me. Princess movies were more my thing, and I thought Peter Pan was a jerk. So I went into this afraid I might hate it. I was wrong though. Tiger Lily was everything I wasn’t expecting it to be. Peter was still a jerk though, so that didn’t change. lol

If the story of Peter Pan was real, I mean really real, this is how I think it would play out. No doubt. Everything down to him and the lost boys flying, the pirates being obsessed with him, and even Tinker Bell being a little witch. The explanations given for all of these things make complete sense to me now!

I fell in love with Tiger Lily. You are reading from Tinks point of view and it’s written out so cleverly. Tiger Lily is not perfect but there is much character growth. She learns lessons and realizes that every action has consequences. Not always good.

Some of the little things, like the tick tocking crocodile, I just loved how that came about. Anderson put such a realistic spin on this tale, but she kept key elements that needed to stay.

If you’re expecting Disney quality happiness, you will not find it here. Tiger Lily is sad, this story pulls at your heart strings, and I thought it was beautifully written. I adored this book and I’m so glad I took a chance on it.

About the author:

I write books about vaguely magical peach orchards, resorts in the afterlife, enigmatic island
princesses beloved by Tinkerbell, and...civics! I was an awkward and strange child who kept lots of secrets. Now I live with a sweet Basenji dog named Peanut who loves to eat shoes, and a sweet husband who is good at all the things I'm bad at, like being organized and thinking things through. I've loved writing and reading about mythical and strange things since I can remember.

Find Jodi Lynn Anderson:

Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: april, harper-collins, jodi lynn anderson, retellings, reviews, tiger lily

A New Starry-eyed Reviewer

Okay, so you guys probably remember back when I announced that my sister Mendy was going to start blogging with me.  And then she posted a few reviews and a slightly stalkerish post about Leo.  Good times. But real life has taken its toll on my dear sister and she just isn't able to find the time to read and review like she thought she'd be able to.  *cue the sad faces*

But, I've been chatting with April from Sim~Sational~Books for the last couple of days, and she was looking to co-blog with someone instead of spending all of her free time trying to keep up with her own blog.  I haven't been actively seeking a co-blogger, but I've wanted one for awhile.  One that would actually be able to help out and post every once in awhile. I'm just picky, and after Mendy didn't work out, and her being family and all, I thought I was doomed to wander the earth, er, blogosphere, alone.  (If you get that obscure reference, you are now my new best friend.)

When April indicated that she was totally serious about co-blogging AND that she wanted to do so on my blog, well, I was beyond ecstatic. I've known April for most of the three years that I've been blogging, and she just gets me.  We are so much alike that we could almost be the same person:  happily married, early 30s, parents of only children -- both 5yo's in Kindergarten, drama haters, and of course, booknerds. I told her that she and her hubby sound like the Pennsylvania versions of me and Jerrod, and it's funny but true. We'd all be besties if we lived nearer to each other.

Anyway, you may or may not have encountered April around the blogosphere, but either way, you're going to be seeing a lot more of her around here.  Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you guys to my new co-blogger:

Hi! My name is April.

I like books. Of course I do! Why else would I be here? I'm kind of at a loss when writing these things. I feel the same way sometimes when I sit down to review books. So I just wing it. Up until now, I was reviewing on my own blog. I was drowning, because the truth is, I don't have the time or motivation to run a blog myself. I didn't want to quit blogging because I love it, so when Jen offered for me to join her, I couldn't pass it up. I'm so excited to be here.

I've been an avid reader since I was in my early tweens. Back then I would sneak adult books off my mothers shelf and hide in my room to read them. Now as an adult, I'm more drawn to YA. I do read some Adult and New Adult occasionally, but YA is what I like best.

I'm that girl in the office at work who doesn't go out to lunch. I pack my lunch just so that I can have extra reading time. I've visited so many exotic places while sitting in that desk chair, it's unreal. My evenings are spent snuggling my 5 year old, kindle in hand, while she watches her shows. Life doesn't get much better than that! Books are awesome!

Besides blogging, April is responsible for some really awesome SIMS-based book trailers.  You should check out her YouTube channel, too.  Now that she's going to be doing her thing over here, I hope she has more time to work on those...I've really missed them and they are pretty great.  She always infuses her zany sense of humor in them, too. Seriously, the girl is FUNNY.  =)

We are both extremely excited about this joint venture, and we look forward to where it takes us.  I hope you'll all give April a warm welcome and treat her like family, 'cause she already feels like it to me.  Except that I actually talk to her and don't feel the need to be all passive-aggressive with her. :P  You'll see...she's totes good people.

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Labels: 2014, april, book bloggers, updates