***The Starry-Eyed Revue***

Thursday, June 26, 2014

{Cover Reveal} Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass + Giveaway #LOVECover

Thursday, June 26, 2014 with 5 comments

I am so excited to help with the cover reveal for Alexis Bass' debut novel today, due out from HarperTeen in December! This is also the reveal of the jacket copy description. It sounds absolutely adorable and now has a cover to match! So, without further ado, behold the awesome:

To preorder: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Here's the blurb:

If you want more, you have to give less.

That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.

So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love.

LOVE AND OTHER THEORIES is due to be released on December 31, 2014.

About the author:

Alexis Bass grew up in Washington, went to college in Arizona, and spent her early twenties in Seattle. She currently lives in Northern California with Dylan McKay, her gorgeous and rambunctious golden retriever. She loves good fashion and good TV as much as a good book, and is a huge advocate of the three C’s: coffee, chocolate, and cheese. LOVE AND OTHER THEORIES is her first novel.

Find Alexis:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am so excited for this book! I really like the simplicity of the cover as well as how it pertains to the summary of the novel. I can't wait for December!

What do you think of the cover and the summary? Does this sound like something you think you'd pick up?

Labels: alexis bass, all the swoons, contemporary, giveaways, harper-collins, love and other theories, official cover reveals

Bloomsbury Spark’s Six Month Sparkiversary

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Bloomsbury Spark is a one-of-a-kind, global, digital imprint from Bloomsbury Publishing dedicated to publishing a wide array of exciting fiction eBooks to teen, YA, and new adult readers. And to help celebrate their six month anniversary as an imprint, they're doing a huge giveaway!

I've only read one of these titles so far -- The Art of Falling by Jenny Kaczorowski -- but I've already added several more to my TBR list. And I think that the excerpts I've been given to share with you might convince you to check out a couple of these eBooks, too. =)

Check out all the Bloomsbury Spark titles on Goodreads!

Excerpt from THE ART OF FALLING by Jenny Kaczorowski

Ben sat down on the ramp up to a guard tower. The light over the door traced the perfectly balanced proportions of his profile and shone in his close-cropped hair. He had the kind of strong, chiseled face that made her wish she were a sculptor instead of a painter.

“Sorry my sister is such a pain in the ass,” he said.

“Hey, that’s my best friend you’re talking about.” She settled beside him.

“Yes and I’ve been stuck in the same class as you two since kindergarten.”

“Another nine months and you’ll be free from us.”

He gave her a half laugh. “Don’t remind me.”

Bria shifted, leaning against the handrail. “Have you made a decision yet?”

“Not officially. I don’t sign until February, but I gave Oregon a verbal no last week.”

“Seriously? Abby said you had a full ride.”

He shrugged. “It didn’t feel right.”

“But Oregon is one of the best schools for football, right? Kind of seems like a big deal.”

Ben looked around the beach, still deserted save for a lone seagull, before his eyes settled on her. “I want there to be more to me than football, more than being that guy.”

She stilled, aware of her heart beating in her chest and the air filling her lungs. “Yeah. Yeah, I get that.”

“I don’t know.” He stretched out his long legs, gazing at the ocean. “I guess that’s why I’m out running after spending the entire day in practice. When I run, there’s no expectations, no demands. Just me and the sand and the sky and the surf.”

“I’m not exactly built for running,” she said, eyeing her figure, much too tall and all soft around the edges.

“You’re fine, Bria. Girls like Alyson Kane are the ones who aren’t built for running.”

Bria snorted. She’d give anything to squeeze into Alyson’s tiny cheerleading uniform. Her body just wouldn’t agree.

“So what about you?” Ben said. “Abby told me you visited some fancy art school in New York?”

“Oh. Yeah.” She looked down at her hands, picking at a fleck of paint clinging to her cuticle. “Pratt. I just have to get my application and portfolio in by November first for early decision, but admissions said I’m basically in if I want it.”

“Good for you. Wow. New York.”

“I know.”

He tapped his foot against hers. “Why don’t we do this anymore? Just hang out and talk.”

“Come on, Ben. It’s bad enough that you and Abby ended up in the same grade. You don’t need to feel bad for finding your own friends.”

“Abby says I’m not cool enough to hang out with you guys.”

Bria burst out laughing. Ben – star quarterback, perpetual crush, best smile in school – not cool enough? “The Queen of Cool herself is probably passed out drunk by now.”

“Hey. That’s my sister you’re talking about.”

“Sorry about that.” She bumped her arm against his, lingering a little longer than necessary. When she pulled away, something in his gaze made her hands fidget and her tongue trip over her words. “I mean, I love her, but you know...”

“Yeah. I know.” His laughter faded away, leaving something sweet and tender and totally unfunny in his eyes. He brushed his thumb along her cheekbone, the kind of simple, casual touch that made her insides turn to mush. “I’ve really missed you, Bria.”

Excerpt from THE SOUND OF US by Ashley Poston

Despite my best friend being a Roman Holiday aficionado, I only know three things about Roman Montgomery.

One, he has honey brown hair that’s usually gelled up in a wave.

Two, he doesn’t have any visible tattoos—although there were rumors he had a song quote below the belt.

And three, Roman Montgomery would never, ever be seen shopping at a cruddy old Stop-N-Shop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Apparently, I don’t know anything about Roman Montgomery after all.

The longer he holds my gaze, the more I can’t write him off as a good look-alike—it’s the angle of his nose, the sharpness of his cheekbones, the way one eyebrow is always a little higher than the other. He’s gained a little weight since his last interview with GQ, or maybe it’s more muscle, I don’t know, but it’s definitely him.

Suddenly, I jerk my eyes away from his gaze. Oh, God, I have underwear with his face on them. I am beyond mortified. The blush on my cheeks is so hot, it probably matches my hair. And he seems entertained by it.

“I should be flattered, meeting you here again,” he goes on. “Last night we got off on the wrong foot.”

I quickly turn my back to him. Last night I even touted that I hated his band. See, this is why I shouldn’t talk to strangers. “It’s fine. I don’t care.”

“Let’s try again?”

“Uh—no, no thanks.”

But apparently “no” is not in his vocabulary. He slips around in front of me so smoothly, it could be a dance move. He juts out his tattooed hand. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

Is this a joke?

Blitz-wide giveaway, open ~~to US/CAN~~ INTERNATIONALLY:

a Kindle Paperwhite loaded with all of the titles pictured below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by & happy reading!

Labels: bloomsbury, book blitz, giveaways

SYNC Summer 2014: Week 7 #syncya

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Yay, it's finally, officially summer! The kids are out of school, and the temperatures, they are a-rising. =) You know what that means! Free audiobooks! =D SYNC recently announced the list of audiobook pairings up for grabs this summer. Here's what you can grab through Wednesday of next week...for free!

This week's YA title is Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, performed by Noah Galvin for Hachette Audio.

How would you spend your birthday if you knew it would be your last?

Eighteen-year-old Leonard Peacock knows exactly what he'll do. He'll say goodbye.

Not to his mum - who he calls Linda because it annoys her - who's moved out and left him to fend for himself. Nor to his former best friend, whose torments have driven him to consider committing the unthinkable. But to his four friends: a Humphrey-Bogart-obsessed neighbour, a teenage violin virtuoso, a pastor's daughter and a teacher.

Most of the time, Leonard believes he's weird and sad but these friends have made him think that maybe he's not. He wants to thank them, and say goodbye.

This week's classic title is October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, performed by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, & Christina Traister for Brilliance Audio.

WINNER OF A 2013 STONEWALL HONOR!

A masterful poetic exploration of the impact of Matthew Shepard’s murder on the world.

On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard’s life.

This week's offerings seem...sad. But very worthy of a listen. I've heard wonderful things about Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, and though I've never heard of October Mourning, I'll definitely be giving it a listen. I'm not even sure I was aware of that event, but the material sounds gorgeous and haunting, and it's narrated by several of my favorites.

How about you? Will you be picking up either of these titles? Remember, they're only available through Wednesday, and new titles will be put up on Thursday for download. Other things to note:

CHECK OUT the 2014 titles!
LISTEN to sound clips on SoundCloud to help you decide!
GET your device ready! You must have the OverDrive Media Console or APP to download the SYNC titles! Visit the OverDrive website to download.
Questions? Email: synchelp@audiofilemagazine.com
Text message alerts – Text syncya to 25827 for SYNC title download alerts.
Email updates – sign up for SYNC title alerts by email.
Follow the SYNC blog.

To download this week's titles, just click on the image below to be taken directly to the SYNC download page:

I hope you take advantage of this program. I've been doing it for the last few years, and I've had the opportunity to listen to a ton of great audio for free. If you've never tried audiobooks before, it's a great opportunity to do so without the obligation of buying one that you might not enjoy. And if you love audiobooks, well, it's a great time to stock up on some titles you may have missed. Win/win. =)

Labels: 2014, audiobooks, favorites, freebies, promotions, summer, sync

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

{DNF} Review: From What I Remember by Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 with 14 comments

Title: From What I Remember
Author: Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas
Series: n/a
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: May 15, 2012
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

KYLIE: Mexico? What a nightmare! I should be putting the finishing touches on my valedictorian speech. Graduation is TODAY! Wait! Is this a wedding band on my finger??

MAX: It started with Kylie's laptop and a truck full of stolen electronics and it ended in Ensenada. It was hot, the way she broke us out like some chick in an action movie. But now we're stranded here, with less than twenty-four hours before graduation.

WILL: Saving Kylie Flores from herself is kind of a full-time occupation. Luckily, I, Will Bixby, was born for the job. And when I found out she was stuck in Mexico with dreamy Max Langston, sure, I agreed to bring their passports across the border but there's no reason to rush back home right away. This party is just getting started.

LILY: This cannot be happening. It's like some cruel joke. Or a bad dream. I close my eyes and when I reopen them, they're still there. Max and Kylie Flores, freak of the century. In bed together. If Kylie thinks I'm giving him up without a fight, she's dead wrong.

Oh. My. Gawd. This book was bad. So bad that I couldn't even finish it, making it my first official DNF of the year. I can tolerate a lot when it comes to books, but this book pushed my limits. I was actually buddy reading this with my younger sister. It seemed perfect for us, like it was meant to be or something. We'd been at Half Price Books and they had a paperback copy for $2 and I had a finished copy already, and the book was on my Summer TBR pile -- had been on my shelf for ages -- so we thought we'd read it together, hoping it was as funny and charming as it sounded.

Nope. It was just full of stereotypes and insane situations and it was just plain awful. We kept trying to like it, to connect with the story, but it was just impossible. When I asked Mendy how she'd review the book she said, "Um, well, it was gay, and so were the characters." Now, I know that's not PC, but at least three characters in the book actually were gay, so it's a fair assessment, I think.

Considering the insanity that bled forth from the pages of this novel, I find is highly suspect that the story itself was so unbelievably predictable. Everything my sister and I anticipated happening came to pass. We stopped at the halfway point in this book, and even then we continued to entertain thoughts of what might occur in the latter half of the book, and much to our chagrin, we were pretty spot-on. I won't list examples here in case you still have plans to read this nonsense, but suffice it to say, if you envision it happening in this story, it probably will. Is the book able to read the reader's mind? Or is it just that badly written? As awesome as the first possibility is, I'm not inclined to believe that's the case here.

Initially, I had wanted to check out this novel because the main character sounded a lot like me in high school: intelligent, introverted, hot-tempered, and a little bit weird. And Kylie is those things, but in the worst way. I hated her voice, how she treated people, how she continued to make terrible decisions. Ugh, and the movie quotes. That aspect can be fun when done right, but it was just so annoying in this book, whether the quotes were being spoken sporadically throughout the text or were the precursor to each chapter. They just felt forced and not at all entertaining. The same goes for all of the pop culture references. I mean, there was a mention of browsing in a Circuit City before they went under. That company's been gone from Texas for over a decade at least, and even the store that took over the old building it was in has since gone under and a new business has moved in. I think this mention was to make the story feel relevant and real, but none of these pop culture references worked for me. I realize that contemporary novels have a harder time standing the test of time, not dating themselves, but the mentions of brands and stores was just in overabundance in this one.

The novel as a whole -- or at least what we read of it -- was just off-putting and there are just so many other books to spend time with. I think too much time was spent getting the reader and the characters to the point that they're supposed to be at in the synopsis, and I just couldn't be bothered to care how it all came to fruition any longer. Especially once Mendy perused the last few chapters and told me that we would have been pissed had we kept reading to the end, only to discover that everything went down just as we'd guessed.

GIF it to me straight:

About the authors:

Karma Bites is a first novel by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas. Kramer is a comedy writer, whose television credits include "Lizzie McGuire" and "Less Than Perfect." She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Find Stacy:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

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Karma Bites is a first novel by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas. Valerie Thomas is a screenwriter and producer, and has overseen such films as "Adaptation" and "Philadelphia." She lives in New Jersey.

Find Valerie:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Labels: buddy reads, contemporary, disappointments, disney hyperion, dnf, mendy, reviews, stacy kramer, summer, valerie thomas

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

{Audiobook} Review: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 with 10 comments

Title: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Author: Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham
Narrator(s): Kristen Bell
Series: Veronica Mars, book #1
Length: 8 hrs 42 mins
Publisher: Random House Audio
Publication Date: March 25, 2014
Source: audio borrowed from library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

The first book in an original mystery series featuring twenty-eight-year-old Veronica Mars, back in action after the events of Veronica Mars: The Movie. With the help of old friends—Logan Echolls, Mac Mackenzie, Wallace Fennel, and even Dick Casablancas—Veronica is ready to take on Neptune’s darkest cases with her trademark sass and smarts.

First, if you have not seen the awesome full-length Veronica Mars movie, I recommend doing so before reading this book. The movie picks up nine years after the end of the show, or ya know, Veronica's first year of college. The book picks up shortly after the end of the movie. And though the book does a slight recap, you'll benefit more if you watch/read in the proper order.

Second, this audiobook was amazing. Not only because it was narrated by Veronica Mars herself -- also known as the fantastic Kristen Bell -- but because it reads like an episode of the show. I mean, I'm sure it helps that the voice-overs that I'm used to in the show were narrated by the woman who plays the role, but I could perfectly envision each character as they made an appearance in the story. And I loved them all as much as I ever did, even that jerktastic Dick Casablancas.

I just love the adult Veronica and that even though she's grown up, she's still the same mixed up girl she was. She's still questioning her choices and her romantic entanglements, but even those have a darker edge to them now. The movie and this book together helped to make the nine years since the show's demise feel legitimate, like nothing and everything has changed.

The mystery is just as twisty as you've come to expect from VM, too. You always think you have the perp pegged, and then BAM, Veronica blows all of your theories out of the water with her shrewd sleuthing techniques. There are surprises, and then there are SURPRISES. I honestly can't imagine that fans of the show will be disappointed in this most recent installment in the Veronica Mars world. But if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend you go the audiobook route. It's just as phenomenal as watching an episode.

My only complaint, besides being on the wait list at the library for weeks for this title?

GIF it to me straight:

About the author:

Born in Sunnyside, WA. Previous credits include the Veronica Mars television show, which ran for three seasons, and Rats Saw God. Forthcoming from the author besides The Thousand Dollar Tan Line is the second book in the new Veronica Mars series, Mr. Kiss and Tell, due out October 28, 2014

Find Rob:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads